Survival in Dauper Village
by Fabian B Shanks
Summary: Jean finally having his dream date with Mikasa. To avoid the crowd, they take a walk to the southern area of Wall Rose. But then something went wrong and they lost their horse only to get lost in a woods and being attack by a 3 meters titans that is not supposed to be inside the wall. alternate storyline. Jean x Mikasa
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer** : Hajime Isayama

**warning :** alternate time, alternate storyline, english is not the first language of the author. Therefore, pardon the bad grammar or false vocabularies.

Story taken place after humanity restore the district Trost. Skipped to the appearance of ape titan.

* * *

Since the first time I recognize her, she always on my mind. Even though I know that she seeing somebody else, I still couldn't get over her off my mind. I'm not really sure what makes me let her swinging on my mood, I feel better when she's on my sight.

That night, somebody suddenly pass in front of my eyes. It's only happened for few seconds, but I won't let her slip away. Few seconds left my anchor stuck on her beach. It's not really about her mesmerizing black hair, it seems like the more I know about her, the more I get attached to her.

Her name is Mikasa. Mikasa Ackerman.

Years gone by, and she still on my mind. I knew she's always together with some suicidial asshole with his childish dreams to eliminate all titans. I'm a realist, I knew Mikasa never see another people as important as the way she seeing Eren. They've been together since they were kids, I knew they are family without blood relative. But Mikasa stuck to Eren as the way I stuck to her. Even though I could tell that Eren cares her like some nagging sister or mother. Well, to be honest, I don't really know what he really feel about Mikasa, but I don't see Eren treat her like lover. It means, I still have a chance.

Today is wednesday. In Friday to Sunday, I have my day out. And Mikasa too. Good thing is, Eren is on duty at that day. Hehehe ... this is great. It's been 3 weeks since I'm trying to asking Mikasa out to take a walk, but there's always something going on. Everytime I tried to talk to Mikasa, somebody gives me order to patrol in some area. If there's no order, I couldn't find Mikasa anywhere. And when I get to approach Mikasa face to face ...

"Umm ... Mikasa. Hi." Shit! My legs are shaking!

"Yes, Jean. Hi." as usual, she answers coldly, without even turn her looks at me. Well, at least she knew it's my voice. And couldn't blame her too because I asked her at the border of district Trost where we manage to retake the area from the titans. There's still titans lurking around outside the border, and she must watch their activities carefully. Just some daily patrol.

"How's the titans today?"

She finally turn her heads to look at me, confused. "As you see there."

"Oh yeah, right." Shit! I must be looks like a joke! A shit joke! It's been tree weeks since I bought a ring for her past birthday present. And I haven't say anything until now. Damn, Jean! Just say those damn ten words why is it so hard?

_What if she says 'no'?_

I will be very hurt. At least I say it. Yes, I'm a realistic guy, I knew she would answers 'no'. So, after she says 'no', I'll just give her the ring. And leave it that way, whether she likes it or not, it will not be my concern.

"Umm, Mi-Mikasa, woudh-woudh-woudh..." Damn, it's harder to say it when she looking back at me! Usually she stares to another direction! _'Would you like to go out with me this weekend?_' even the first word is very hard to slip on my tounge

"Wud?" she asks.

"Woudh-woudh ..." I'm still chuckling on my own words! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I used to be a honest man, say whatever on my mind. But this ... I feel like all my legs are gone, the nape of my neck seems ripped by someone's razor blade.

I stopped when I heard Connie calling out my name. "Jean! There you are! Hey, Jean, the commander asks you to help cleaning up the mess that ..."

I losing my grip, I turn around and yelled at him, "What? Another sudden task? Fuck! This happening again! I will never ask her out! Darn you Connie! I just need few more seconds and give this birthday present to Mikasa! Why you must appears out of nowhere with that damn stupid task!"

I stunned.

Connie stunned.

Mikasa's expression remains cold as she always do when Eren's not around.

"What's the fuss, man? If you want to ask her out, just ask right away. It doesn't take long time to say it. I can wait, the assignment can wait too." It seems very easy for him to say it.

I grabbed on his colar jacket and completely forgot that Mikasa still watching us. "You don't know how hard for me to say it, I must fight against my fucking grogginess. I look like a complete retard this way, that's why I waited for the right moment to ask her when she's completely alone! ... Now that I think about it, how did you find me here?"

"Somebody says Jean left with a very serious face and somewhat blushing to his ears. So I guess you went to see the girl you like."

"What?" Seriously! How did he know?!

"Uhh, Jean." That voice reminds me that after all those things that Connie says, Mikasa still around. She heard everything. It's a one-sided love, I will be very embarassed if anybody knew.

"What's going on?" she asks.

When I don't know how to face her now, Connie shouts, "He likes you, Mikasa, and it looks like he wants to ask you out."

I should save my sorry ass! "No, Mikasa, it's..."

"Let's hang out, then."

I stunned again. In different way.

"Whoa ... I can't believe it. Mikasa is dating people other than Eren! Congratulation, buddy!" Connie tapping on my back.

"It's not a date, ok? I just ask you out." I knew she only loves Eren, I must be realistic!

"Even if it's a date, it's still ok." she continues and gives me a little smile. The smile that I long to see, the smile that always appears in my dreams, the smile she only gave to Eren.

"Ok, on Friday 3 pm, I will wait you in Southern area of Wall Rose."

"Sheeshh, Jean, what are you going to do there? Only solitary mountain and ... ah, I see." Connie quickly grins.

I worriedly turn over to Mikasa, wondering if she think negatively about Connie's own imagination about what he address as 'solitary mountain'. I want to take her there so nobody such Eren will found us and disturb our private time, and so when I get groggy, nobody will see it and use it to make a fool of me. I thought Mikasa had a second thought about it, but looks like it's not.

"See you later, Jean."

I bid farewell and follow Connie. I swinging like crazy across the town. I feel like a fireworks right now.

When Connie arrives, he celebrate it, shouting to the other soldiers, "Jean will get laid! Jean finally get laid!"

I quickly suffocate him to shut up before he tells anyone about Mikasa. Besides, it's not like that!

* * *

_To be continued ... _


	2. Chapter 2

On the settled day, I walk my way to the southern area of Wall Rose, near the gate. This area is perfect. Not many people here, beautiful scenery on sights, such peacefull time will let us share moments. Since I don't know why she suddenly cares to anyone other than Eren, I'll take it as our first and last date. Usually, if a date is success, there will be another. If she having a good time with me, we sure will getting closer. And one day she will forget completely about Eren and I will become her boyfriend before a titan devour me, or devour her ...

_Wait, Jean, why are you thinking so far?_

I need to stop feeding on my excitements right now. For this date, I cleaned up everything from teeth to nails. I took a bath longer than I used to be. I wear my best white garb, cover up with dark green doublet. This is the most expensive doublet I have, I only wear it when I have to meet someone's important. On my way here, I found a garden of wild roses and pick one for this special girl in my life.

_Life? Geezzz ... aren't you getting too serious? And flower? Are you kidding me? Do you really think a girl like her will likes it? She will think you as whimpy sissy!_

Oh, right. I think I'll just throw away this rose ... wait, no. It's ok. My dad also bought flowers to mom when I was kid back then. And mom likes it. Probably I just give her just like that, no need poetic words, or songs like people in plays do.

As I heard horse footsteps, I turned over and saw a beautiful girl with orientalic beauty riding her horse. The 3pm sun light flashing through her black hair. I can see her dressing like a real young lady. I can't believe my eyes, she dressed for me! She wearing a beautiful linen dress in color of red, as red as roses, with yellow border on it's edges. She looks so beautiful, I pretified myself like an idiot holding on the red wild rose.

"Wow ..." I whispered unconsiously. For a second, I thought I saw a goddess vissiting a mere peasant on earth.

"Where's your horse, Jean?" She asks.

"Ahh ... I forgot." What am I saying? Why didn't I told her, I don't expect to bring horse? I just want to met her here and take a little walk through the woods and after dawn, I walk her home to the dorm.

"Oh, when you said southern area of Wall Rose, I thought it's about riding horse across the plain."

_Well, you could mount on me, baby._

No, no, if I keep the pervert thoughts, I will be damned forever. She will hates me. "Ahhh, I'm not planning on that actually."

"So, what are we going to do now?" She dismount her horse, now I could see her from close range. As she walk closer, I could smell the scent of her hair, and my heart beat faster.

"Y-y-you looks so beautiful, Mikasa."

Her eyes widen, "You think so?"

"Yes. Of course. I'm a honest man." I grinned. I couldn't control this smile on my face. I just hope I don't look like a stupid donkey right now. I present her the wild rose.

"Thank you."

"For your birthday, I bought you this ring." I give her a wooden ring. Seems like she didn't reject my gift, she give her hand and I put the ring on the middle finger. "Wow ... it fits perfectly in your finger."

"Thank you, Jean." She just gave me the thank yous and smiles, as if she don't know how to react as a normal girls. But that's why I love her, she looks more dedicated and more disipline among the other female soldiers I ever seen.

For a few moment, I really don't know what to do. I'm 15 and this is my first date ever with the girl I really like. None of us know what to do, I guess this is her first date too. So, for a seconds we just stares to each others. My shaking hand still holding her hands with my present embraces her middle finger.

"Jean, your hand is wet."

"Oh, uhh... sorry." I let go of my hand.

"What do we do now?"

I don't know, Mikasa. I'm just here to gave you ring for a birthday present, I don't expect you to look this perfect, if only I knew, I would make it earlier like 12 pm or maybe 10 am and we can have a walk in bazaar to see things or eating in some restaurant with delicious cuisines. "I don't know, care to take a walk?"

She don't mind at all.

We talk about small things happens around us. Mostly, I talk about our comrades such as Armin, Connie, or the potato girl, Sasha, but when she starts talking about Eren, I quickly avoid the topic and talk about my perspective about this war, about titans, about humanity. But eventually it will only lead us back to the topic about Eren.

"He has a dream. He wants to see the ocean, he wants to go see the world. But titans become the barrier between him and his dreams, they also eat his mother in front of his eyes about five years ago."

I give up changing topics. I really hate it when she talking about Eren. Not that I hate Eren, but I just ...

_Jealous._

No, it's like ... yes, it's jealousy. Because it makes me feels like she tries to told me that she knew Eren too much. As if only Eren inside her mind. I can't let this happening, why would she get dressed for this date and care to spend sometime alone with me but all we doing just talking about another guy that she really cares? But I just can't leave her right away. Aside that I don't want to left her behind, I don't bring a horse with me.

"If he gets stronger and stronger, soon he wouldn't need me anymore. I will left behind alone. He kept practicing his skills so he can protect himself. He will not need me anymore." I'm so sick of this and about to walk away and leave her behind.

But then I saw her painful face. My heart gets really hurts to see her that way.

"Mikasa ..." I lift my hand to touch her face. "You're not alone."

To see her eyes staring back at me, somehow makes me stronger inside. This is really, really weird.

It's getting dark before we realize. She won't leave me behind, but mounting the horse together will makes the situation getting weirder-for her. So we walking through the woods, looking for a way home. But when the moon getting higher, bugs starts cricking, and fireflies surrounds us, we don't reach the wall at all.

One thing that worries me, Mikasa's horse sounds weird. It starts to breathing and sometimes it about to ready to jump somewhere. "Your horse sounds panic."

Mikasa tapping on her horse gently, "I don't know, she used to be calm and gentle."

"Ride it and go home." I meant it.

"No. I won't leave you behind."

We continue to walk. The horse is getting more weirder, I knew it's getting late and we still get to nowhere. "Uhh, Mikasa, you know where you're going, right?"

She stop walking all of a sudden. In shock, she stares at me, "I following you."

Wait. So I following a person who following me?

Suddenly Mikasa's horse rebelling. She went berserk and jump out on her own left us alone in the wood.

"Mikasa, are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She holding on her legs, but it seems she's really fine, she get up on her foot, we could only watching the horse disappear into the darkness night.

"What's the deal?" I'm talking about the horse, when I heard a steps on the ground along with shaking ground.

Me and Mikasa freeze our neck as we realize what it is.

"Titan?" she hissed.

This is fucking night time, for wall's sake. But the guts told me that it is indeed titan's footsteps.


	3. Chapter 3

We run away.

"Do not separate!" She ordered in gasp. Of course in times like this, we shouldn't get separated. Even if no titans around, we still shouldn't go separated.

"Let's run to the North!"

"Do you know where is north?"

I look above, leaves from the trees blocking the sky. I can't examine the stars to see where is north. As we run, we could heard the titan's footsteps getting faster and closer.

"Shit, it's really a titan! What's a titan doing here? Another leak on the wall?"

"No idea." She tries to answer my question.

"Shit if I know this gonna happen, I'll bring my weapon." Why would I even take a boot dagger with me in a date? Protection from a date rape? That's ridiculous.

_We're dead meat!_

"Jean, at this rate, it gonna get us." Suddenly she stop running. She must be out of her mind, what would we do? We definitely can't fight the titan bare-handedly. Before I ask her anything, she found a piece of tree branch and break it into two pieces.

"Jean!" She throws one and I catch it just before a 3 meter class titan appears between the trees, right behind Mikasa. I shock in horror when I see it open it's mouth, showing teeth, about to crush Mikasa's neck.

"Mikasa, behind you!" I rush to her, need to do something with this branch before I lost someone important for me. But before I reach her range, she quickly turn over to face the titan and violently thrust the titan's throat with the tree branch. The edge of the three branch is sharp enough to pierce it's throat to the back of it's neck. Titan's blood spill over to Mikasa's face and linen dress.

But it still moving, and it don't fucking care about it's own pain, it just want to eat Mikasa. The titan grabbed on Mikasa's arms, trying to rip it off. She fall down to the ground, strugling hard to save her life or limb by repeatedly thust the Titan's neck. I pick up a big stone and swing it hard to crush it's neck. Armin will measuring the weak spot, but I don't give a damn. I'm tired, I'm thirsty, I need to get home and the girl I loved can die if I don't kill this monster as soon as possible. I repeatedly hit it's neck until it destroyed completely. The titan collapsed to the ground, pressing on Mikasa's body. I help her get rid of the titan corpse which is now begin to vaporise. Just like Mikasa, the titan's blood all over my face, hands and torso.

I check on her arms, not a big wound, just a bruise. "I feel like my bones about to scattered."

"We have to keep moving, looking for a safe place. If we don't know where the north is, at least walking through this woods will eventually lead us somewhere. There must be a village around this area." I tried to encourage her.

"Agree." I help her stand up and we pick random direction then continue walking.

It's getting dark, too dark to see our surroundings. Just the light from the moon above infiltrate among the leaves. I could only hear her steps, I really want to hold her hands.

"Jean."

I stop walking.

"So dark, hold my hand." Before I reach her palm, she touch mine and hold it tightly. We continue our walk.

I don't know where we are, or how long we had walked. I almost lost my breath but Mikasa is Mikasa, tough as always; she doesn't seems to look tired at all. Thanks to my pride, I manage to keep up with her pace, and relievely catch a breath when she stop by the end of the woods.

"Do you know what village there?"

I look at where she stares. Not far from where we stand, there's a small village with few houses and farm. "As far as I know, only a village located around the southern area of Wall Rose; Village of Dauper."

"How do you know that?" Her eyes stares at me. For a second, it hypnotized me again. If only she knew what I feel about her, if I could tell or show her exactly what I feel...

"It's Sasha's homeland. You don't know?"

She look away, "I don't think it's nescesary for me to know."

I chuckled, "Yeah, right. If it's not about Eren, it's not important."

"He's my family. Of course he's important." Suddenly she glares at me, looks like trying to give me warning to watch my mouth. I don't find it offensive myself, but probably this is the difficult part of being an honest man. Wait, I'm still 15, I'm still a boy technically. Must be realistic.

I follow Mikasa walking down the land to reach the village. Now we're in an open air, I could see the stars up in the sky. and I could tell that instead of getting closer to military dorm, we getting farther. If I'm not mistaken, based on the map I acknowledge, we're getting closer to the area of Wall Maria, and I'm positively believe that we reach the village of Dauper.

But still, I have no idea what village it is. Judging by the farm and the soil, I don't think this is Dauper. Dauper is village of hunters, and as far as I know, hunters don't farm.

As we get closer to the village, I could hear a dog barks loudly. This gives me the chills, makes me thinking that there's something wrong. A dog wouldn't normally barking like that unless something's about to happened. Mikasa reach the nearest door of the houses and tries to wake the owner by knocking at it. No answer.

While she knocking on the door, I found a machete stuck on a dead branch. I check on it, it's not rusty. I give a slash to a firewood scattered on the ground around it. It still as sharp as the razor blade. In normal situation, I will leave it as it is, for stealing is wrong. But the 3 meter class titan that we killed later starts to worries me. Where did it come from? Was there another leak? How many of them? How did it get inside here? And this is fucking midnight, how come that titans move around trying to eat people? Why this village gives me the creeps?

Therefore a sharp machette like this might come in handy. I slip it in my belt behind my back. Mikasa still haven't giving up calling on the owner of the cottage, I think I'll take a look around. Yep. There's nothing in this village aside barns, farms, stable, this is a remote village. The chickens sleep soundly, I follow the dog's barking voice, and found it. It's a German sheperd, male. And from his body language, he clearly states that he's afraid. A chain tied around his neck, as he desperately jumping around to get free. I return to where Mikasa at, she stop knocking and tries to peek inside the cottage.

"Still no answer?" I asked.

She shook her head. I could tell she realize the weirdness of the atmosfere but she don't care. She desperately needs a place to rest. Her wounded left arm begin to shaking.

"You alright?"

"It's hurt, I think the bone is cracking somehow ..." she sounds so tired.

"Well, I saw a horse ranch behind this cottage, looks like it's unlock. We could get some rest and apologizing the owner tomorow morning."

I walk her to the horse ranch, my heart beats faster in horror as I open the ranch where the horses kept. I think of stealing the horses and mount them to the headquarter. But Mikasa looks too tired, she found her bed above the straws and lie there. She's about to get sleep. I draw my machette and hold it tight, sit a couple steps away from her, and keep my awareness on while she's asleep.

"Hey, Jean ... ?" I heard her voice calling me softly.

"Yes?"

"You thirsty...?"

"Yes."

"Can you find me water?"

Fuck. It's creepy outside. What if when I get myself out there, a titan found me?

"Sure. Wait for a couple minutes. I won't be long." I stand up and carefully get out of this horse stable.


End file.
